RoughCut Builder

Built and tested

• Reads SRT subtitles, tolerant of BOM, Windows line endings, missing index lines and dot milliseconds.
• Paper edit: write the quotes you want, in the order you want. Each is matched to the run of subtitles that says it, even across several lines and with small wording differences.
• Quotes that are not in the interview are listed with their best match, never forced in.
• Bites get handles, are clipped at the end of the media, and short or overlapping bites are flagged.
• Exports Final Cut Pro 7 XML: one video and two audio tracks, clips back to back in script order, frame-accurate in and out points.
• 25, 24, 30 and NTSC rates (23.976, 29.97) written with the correct timebase and NTSC flag.

Limits

• The previous test record reports an import into Premiere Pro 26.5.2 on macOS 27.0.1. DaVinci Resolve has not been tested. Sync was checked from timeline data, not by listening.
• Matching is word-based, not semantic: a heavily reworded quote may not be found.
• One source clip per timeline; multicam and several interviews are not combined yet.
• Drop-frame timecode is not shown; frame counts are exact.

Planned

Timebase/fps checks, confidence intervals and editable cut decisions.

• Paste the interview's SRT (most transcription tools export it).
• Write your paper edit: one quote per line, in the order you want them. Lines starting with # are notes.
• Pick the frame rate of the source and the handle length. Check the bites, the misses and the warnings.
• Export XML and import it into your editor; relink the clip to your interview file.

• Times stay in milliseconds until export and become frames once, so nothing drifts across bites.
• Quote matching scores every run of up to six subtitles by word overlap (F1 of recall and precision) and keeps the best above 0.6.
• XML is generated as text with escaping, and a reader in the tests checks clip order, back-to-back placement and in and out points for every rate.

No download yet. A download appears here only after the package is built from reviewed code, installed and tested.

• Pass Unit: SRT parsing (BOM, CRLF, missing index, dot milliseconds) Node 22, Linux
• Pass Unit: paper edit matching across lines; missing quotes reported Node 22, Linux
• Pass Unit: bites, handles, media bounds, short and overlap warnings Node 22, Linux
• Pass Unit: XML clip order, back-to-back, frame-accurate in/out at 25, 23.976, 29.97 Node 22, Linux
• Pass Third-party read: OpenTimelineIO fcp_xml reader gets the same clips, ranges and duration at 25, 23.976, 29.97 OpenTimelineIO 0.18.1 + otio-fcp-adapter, Python 3.13
• Pass Browser: bites, missing quote, XML export, empty input Chromium (Playwright), 1280px
• Pass Premiere Pro import: clip order, placement and in/out points Premiere Pro 26.5.2, macOS 27.0.1
• Not tested yet DaVinci Resolve import

Last verified 2026-10-31.

The browser tool works; its XML is read correctly by OpenTimelineIO and imports into Premiere Pro 26.5.2 on macOS 27.0.1: Premiere re-exported the same 4 clips in order, back to back, with the same in and out frames, 464 frames at 25 fps, linked to the media. Audio and video share source in and out; the cut was not checked by listening. DaVinci Resolve not tested. Evidence: labs/host-tests/results/2026-10-31-mac.

Input

Synthetic SRT and XMEML

Output

Editable rough-cut timeline and diagnostics

Runs in

Any modern browser. Runs locally; the subtitles and script you paste are not uploaded or stored. Output: Final Cut Pro 7 XML.

Source

Original, rebuilt from scratch

• Video
• Editing
• Automation
• Interactive